David Sirota and the Purity Left Just Got Played for Suckers

Tuesday evening, progressive journalist David Sirota flipped his lid over the the right wing opinion page of the Wall Street Journal posting an editorial by Joe Lieberman: Vote Joe Crowley, for Working Families.

As if Joe Lieberman gives a flying f*ck about the Democratic Party. Please.

Screw Joe Lieberman

This is the weasel that stabbed us in the back to run against Obama in 2008 because something something racism "principles". He threatened to let the entire ACA bill die unless they pulled the Single Payer option from it and still almost tanked the entire thing just to be a jerk.

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This is the same Joe Lieberman that was such a George W. Bush suck up that he was primaried from the left and kicked out of the party in 2006. The only reason we put up with him later is because he ran a third party campaign and won. Thanks, Connecticut.

Joe Lieberman is not a Democrat. He hasn't had an iota of influence on the Democratic Party since the ACA. And I can't think of a single Democratic that gives a rat's ass about anything he has to say. The number of Democratic voters in Queens and the Bronx that care can be counted on one hand. Actually, one finger. The middle one.

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Manipulating suckers for fun and profit

So, yeah, this was a troll editorial designed to sow division between Democrats, who are scratching their head at why Joe Lieberman is opening his stupid mouth, and the Purity Left who should be smart enough to not take the bait.

Then again...

I've only been writing since 2008-2009. I've only been doing it seriously for maybe half that time. I am not a famous and well paid "journalist" like David Sirota. Yet, somehow, I managed to recall that Lieberman was ostracized from the party a very long time ago. He represents the party about as much as Dick Cheney does.
But David Sirota couldn't resist the catnip because it allowed him to further his anti-Democratic Party narrative.

Give David Sirota the benefit of the doubt? Nah.

It's possible that he simply forgot that Lieberman was ejected from the party over a decade ago. And that the Democrats were forced to caucus with him to overcome the GOP's historic abuse of the filibuster. That would make him a useful idiot, serving the right's efforts to sow division ahead of the midterms. It's possible, but not terribly likely. David Sirota is many things but stupid is not one of them.
More likely, he omitted Lieberman's exile from the party and the reasons for it because he had a narrative to serve. Like many on the "I hate the Democrats" purity left, Sirota is willing to be breathtakingly dishonest in his war on the party. Which is disturbing since one of his main complaints is about how corrupt they are. I guess it's OK when he's a liar because something something "moral superiority"?
Just to be clear, after Sirota posted this, his followers foamed at the mouth about how Lieberman (who hasn't been a Democrat since 2006) totally represented establishment Democrats. Sirota never bothered to correct them. He did, however, block me after I pointed out some of the more obvious gaps in his post and suggested a reason for them.

So much for David Sirota, crusading "journalist" for truth. I guess he's happier when no one challenges his screamingly obvious dishonesty. A lie by omission is still a lie.

On the other hand, when People for Bernie took the same bait, I'm fully willing to accept they are being useful idiots.

I'd be happy to bet money the person who wrote that post had to Google "Joe Lieberman", assuming they even bothered.
To be fair, there's a legitimate concern about Crowley running a third party campaign in the general. It would be an extremely dick move and in poor taste. That being said, Crowley has said he's not going to do it and I won't be holding my breath for apologies from Sirota and his ilk if he keeps his word. It's not like they admit they're ever wrong.

Contrarian by design

The bottom line for the purity left is that without the "Us vs. the Democrats" dynamic, they cease to be relevant. For Sirota it's a business model. For the political wing, it's the only way to attract donations and followers. This is why, even as the party moves left and a blue wave is coming, both Sirota and the purity left cannot stop attacking Democrats. They literally cannot take "Yes" for an answer without rendering themselves moot.
The danger here is that this unprincipled opposition to the Democratic Party leaves them vulnerable to manipulation. Again. Russian propaganda was so effective on the the purity left because they were willing to latch on to any justification for hating Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. It didn't matter if it was nonsensical gibberish (She murdered Seth Rich and Vince Foster!) or went counter to their deeply held beliefs (feminists complaining she stayed with her husband. Really?), any excuse was good enough.
We all know Russia is going to do it again. And if Russia doesn't, the Republicans will. Now that they know how easily manipulated the purity left is and how they continue to leave themselves vulnerable, why wouldn't they take advantage of that? That's precisely what Joe Lieberman did with this ridiculous op-ed and look at how quickly the useful idiots and charlatans took the bait.
Goddamn all of them.
Update: After publishing this article, David Sirota unblocked me and tweeted the following:

It's possible that in his rush to sic his Twitter mob on me (he retweeted the article, calling it "seriously deranged"), he neglected to consider that calling attention to his work on Lamont's campaign (the guy that knocked Lieberman out of the Democratic Party) doesn't actually, you know, dispute in the slightest my point that he deliberately omitted the fact that Lieberman had been knocked out of the Democratic Party.

It sure was nice of him to confirm my suspicion that he left out that pesky little fact on purpose. But sure, I owned myself, David. Wink wink.